Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to an organic light-emitting display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same.
Discussion of the Background
Organic light-emitting display apparatuses are self-emitting type display apparatuses that include an organic light-emitting device (OLED) including a hole injection electrode, an electron injection electrode, and an organic emission layer between the hole injection electrode and electron injection electrode, wherein excitons, which are generated by holes injected from the hole injection electrode and electrons injected from the electron injection electrode being united in the organic emission layer, emit light by falling from an excited state to a ground state.
Organic light-emitting display apparatuses that are self-emitting type display apparatuses require no additional light sources, and thus, they may be driven by a low voltage, and may be formed to be thin and lightweight. Also, organic light-emitting display apparatuses have excellent characteristics, such as wide viewing angles, high contrast, and rapid response rates. Thus, the scope of use thereof has been expanded to encompass personal mobile devices, such as MP3 players and cellular phones, as well as televisions.
However, the lifespan of the OLED may be decreased by oxidation of light-emitting materials caused by oxygen or water, and thus, an encapsulation unit for preventing oxygen or water from flowing into the OLED is needed. Recently, research and development has been actively conducted on a multi-layer thin film encapsulation technology or an adhesive film for encapsulation, which may be applied to a large organic light-emitting display apparatus and a flexible display apparatus.
Here, an organic layer included in the multi-layer thin film may easily leak out to a peripheral area of a display apparatus. In this case, external oxygen, water, etc. may penetrate through the organic layer to thereby deteriorate the OLED and reduce the lifespan and the reliability of the display apparatus.
To prevent this problem, a method of detecting whether an organic layer has leaked out has been developed in which a plurality of block structures are formed in the peripheral area of the display apparatus. To detect whether the organic layer has leaked out, a differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope may be used. The DIC microscope may precisely show a surface or an interface of an object to be inspected, and thus, may be useful for inspecting an object which is not easily detected via a general optical system. However, when the DIC microscope is used to identify whether the organic layer is disposed in an area between the plurality of block structures, it is hard to distinguish a concave-convex shape included in surfaces of layers disposed below the area between the plurality of block structures from the organic layer, because the surfaces are not flat.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept, and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.